Club Jade

What really happened to the X-Wing rocket. I can only assume this ‘true version’ has been suppressed by the government. And LFL. Together.

If you’re Andy Woerner and his crazy rocketeer friends (translation: Geeks), and you have an idea, four Class M solid-fuel rocket engines, Baltic Birch wood, solid aluminum, CAD software, and friends at Polecat Aerospace (helped by RMS Laser and Aerotech Consumer Aerospace), what would you do?

Build a flyable X-wing fighter, of course.

The Flight of the X-Wing occurred on October 6.

There’s another, more extensive video here. There’s also a link at the bottom to the launch of a Y-Wing on the same day, with in-flight camera footage!

Building notes and video of the X-Wing rocket.

Can Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda move beyond Chad Vader?

ABC News featured the Wilhelm scream Sunday night.

Drew Struzan’s original paintings on display at Oregon gallery.

Roleplaying jokes meet Star Wars in the Darths & Droids webcomic.

Y-Wing rocket fares slightly better than X-Wing. Of course, it’s still in pieces, but I don’t think anyone is expecting otherwise.

Elsewhere, Gizmodo polls on what the X-Wing folks should do next. As I post this, the Millennium Falcon is winning. People are sadists, man.

The rocket did launch, but didn’t… exactly… stay up very long. Oh well! (via)

UPDATE: Longer version with background chatter on Gizmodo. (Thanks, Fen!)

Andy Woerner and friends have a built a 21-foot by 19 foot X-Wing out of plywood and aluminum, powered by four solid-fuel rocket engines. The wings are radio-controlled and actually move. All the way. Into attack position. How crazy are these folks?

The X-Wing will launch next week (unmanned!) Gizmodo has the full story and all the rocket-geek details.

Blue Origin, the brainchild Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, goes public. Sort of. (Hey Steph, they’re hiring!)

Company called Skywalker Jets has prototyped a working rocket pack. Who will get to them first? LFL with a C&D for the company name, or the particularly rich Boba Fett cosplayers?